Desk Rejecting: A Better Use of Your Time

Abstract

Journal submissions rise with every year. In response, many editors have increased their desk rejection rates. We defend this practice as a more efficient use of authors’, reviewers’ and editors’ time - and suggest that given increased submission rates, alternatives to desk rejecting can be impractical. To support our claim that desk rejecting achieves editorial goals while using authors’ and reviewers’ time efficiently, we then track the fate of every paper submitted to Comparative Political Studies during the first 16 months of our editorial tenure, comparing publication rates, impact factors and citations received to papers we accepted, desk rejected, and rejected after review.

Keywords: desk reject, rejection, rejecting